Out of Balance Wheel or Out of Round Tire | Car Troubleshooting

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What is your Car Problem?

Out of Balance Wheel or Out of Round Tire

The car vibrates at certain speeds. When the steering wheel vibrates most likely the problem involves the front tire, however, if the rear tire has problems, the vibration can also be felt on the car body.

Car Problem Diagnosis

When vibration occurs in your car, the first thing to check is the tire imbalance depending on where the vibration is felt, body or steering vibration. Tire imbalance is when the tire is not evenly rotating when the car is driven, this will make the car vibrates, this occurs at a certain speed where the tire severely vibrates that can cause the car suspension components to also vibrate and transferred to the steering wheel and the car body, causing the entire car to vibrates.

There are two reasons why the tire will not rotate evenly. The first one is when the wheel is out of balance. This means that there is an uneven weight distribution within the wheel which is why the wheel will not rotate evenly and cause the steering wheel or the car body to vibrate. The second one is when the wheel is out of round. This means that the tire is not perfectly round causing the wheel to rotate awkwardly and causes the entire car to vibrate while being driven.

How to Fix Out of Balance Wheel?

For the out of balance wheel, the problem can be fixed by having all of the four wheels balanced. Two methods are used to balance the wheel, the first one is the static balancing and the second one is the dynamic balancing. The dynamic balancing method is the better of the two because it gives consideration of the brake disc or drum and the influence of those parts on a wheel balance.

Steering Wheel Shakes When Driving

Two possible reasons are causing the shaking of the steering wheel. The first reason and the easiest to check is the imbalance front wheel. If the front wheel is balance the other reason is a loose front end parts.

For the out of the round wheel, this can be corrected by rotating the tire 180 degrees on the wheel then test the car if the vibration still occurs, if there is vibration rotate the tire another 90 degrees, then another 180 if the vibration still occurs. If the vibration is still present measure the runout of the wheel and the runout of the tire. Replace whichever is out of specification.